It took a lawsuit by New York’s leading watchdog of taxing and spending, as well as some phone calls from these quarters, and the City Council Friday finally committed to making public critical information about its slush fund expenditures.
Back in May, the Council created a website that revealed for the first time how much money in so-called member items Council members were funneling to favored groups, everything from local athletic clubs to arts organizations.
Ordered by Speaker Christine Quinn, the disclosure was a major step forward in a scandal-plagued system, but it had its limitations.
The information cannot be sorted, added or otherwise analyzed, and the data does not identify responsible parties at the groups receiving funds. Nor does the Council reveal how much money each organization sought and what groups were turned down.
Into the breach stepped the Empire Center, the Albany-based branch of the Manhattan Institute that runs seethroughny.net. This website is packed with information on payrolls, pensions and contracts. It also provides full access to the state Legislature’s member-item spending…
You may also like
State’s Growing Budget Hole Threatens NYC Jobs and Aid as Congress Takes a Holiday
“The biggest problem for the state is the enormous, recurring structural budget gap starting next year and into the future,” said E.J. McMahon of the conservative-leaning Empire Center. “Cuomo clearly hopes that starting in 2021, (Democratic presidential candidate Joseph) Biden and a Democratic Congress will provide states and local government a couple of year’s worth of added stimulus. Read More
How Andrew Cuomo became ‘maybe the most powerful governor’ in U.S.
Ed McKinley
ALBANY — When the New York Constitution was reorganized nearly 100 years ago to give the governor more power over the budget process, noted there was a risk of making “the governor a czar."
M Read More
Study disputes Cuomo on Trump tax package; experts say it’s complicated
Michael Gormley
ALBANY — A new study by a conservative think tank says President Donald Trump’s 2017 tax law gave most New Yorkers a tax cut, even as Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo insists on repealing the measure because he says it will cost New Yo Read More
Empire Center sues Department of Health over nursing home records
Johan Sheridan
ALBANY, N.Y. () — The Empire Center filed a against the state Department of Health on Friday.
“This case isn’t about assigning blame or embarrassing political leaders,” said Bill Hammond, the Empire Center’s Read More
Good news: That New York pork isn’t going out the door after all
The Empire Center first reported Tuesday that grants — 226 of them, totaling $46 million, to recipients selected by the governor and individual state lawmakers — seemed to still be going ahead. Read More
New York Lawmakers Seek Independent Probe of Nursing-Home Coronavirus Deaths
With lingering questions about how the novel coronavirus killed thousands of New Yorkers who lived in nursing homes, a group of state lawmakers is pushing to create an independent commission to get answers from the state Department of Health. Read More
Policy analyst: Cuomo wrong to write-off nursing home criticism as political conspiracy
“The importance of discussing this and getting the true facts out is to understand what did and didn’t happen so we can learn from it in case this happens again,” Hammond said. Read More
EDITORIAL: Nursing home report requires a second opinion
No doubt, the Health Department and the governor would like this report to be the final word on the subject.
But if it’s all the same with them, we’d still like a truly independent review. Read More